November 19, 2017 |
He may be most celebrated for his lead role in Mr Robot, but 2018 will change that for Rami Malek, when he is due to hit the screens wearing the Adidas wrestling boots of Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. He moonlights, of course, as one of Kris Van Assche’s most cherished Dior Homme boys and the star of his SS17 campaign. “I think we have a similar aesthetic for our work. We want our work to push boundaries and be thought-provoking in order to provide an alternative,” Malek says. “I try to incorporate myself into projects that are edgy and current and have something to say, that are socially and culturally relevant. The same can be said for Dior Homme’s designs.”
Malek first met Van Assche at one of his shows in Paris. “I liked his style and I think he may have seen something in mine.” Like all the best encounters, it was a friendship forged at fashion week and a collaboration that had to happen. “Rami is of course Mr Robot, which I loved,” Van Assche says, “but he’s also the best-educated and sweetest star I know. There is definitely a link between him and his persona in Mr Robot – it’s funny, it’s weird.”
Malek describes his profession as “sometimes the puppet, sometimes the puppeteer”, so Van Assche may be more astute in his observation than he knows. For the 2017 Met Ball, the designer dressed Malek in a slick, slim-fit crimson Dior Homme suit that soon made the rounds in cyberspace. “It was so cool and unique. It will always be something I’ll cherish and maybe show my kids,” Malek says. “There’s an energy and anarchy in his work. Kris gets me and knows that’s the look I’m going for. He creates elevated streetwear that I can live in.” Even on the red carpet.
Raised in Los Angeles to Egyptian parents, Hollywood was in Malek’s genes from birth. He did musical theatre at school with the likes of Kirsten Dunst, but weaned himself off showbiz in favour of a fine- arts degree, something that’s undoubtedly added to dinner conversation with the artsy Van Assche. “Just having dinner with him is memorable. He’s so present and in the moment,” Malek says. “He’s as interested in everyone else’s work as he is in his own.”
The actor earned his first screen credits in 2004 and has had a steady career, with roles in titles such as 24, Larry Crowne and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 leading to his dashing breakthrough in Mr Robot in 2015. “I love the fact that he brings his mum to dinner,” Van Assche says. “Because everybody’s always like, ‘Oh fuck, there’s a Mrs Malek?’ But then it’s just his mum.”
Text by Anders Christian Madsen
Photographer Ian Kenneth Bird
Taken from the latest issue of 10 Men, REBEL HEART, on newsstands now…
